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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

After six straight days on the bike—two of which were Subaru Cup races and one of which was an Ozaukee Bicycle Club ride that might as well have been a race—today I took a rest day. But like all of my rest days this one was not completely devoid of cycling. Technically, I did ride a bike today, if only briefly and experimentally.

My son got a flat tire yesterday, so today he and I went step-by-step through the process of replacing the tube. Ryan rides my old Gary Fisher Wahoo, the bike that got me into cycling 10 years ago. It’s still a solid ride but Ryan doesn’t maintain it well. I think he understands now that his flat tire was almost certainly the result of a pinch flat, and he assures me that he will be more diligent about checking tire pressure from now on.

After fixing the flat I cleaned up the drivetrain and lubricated the cables. Then I decided to try something I had seen in an Internet video: turning an old tube into a chainstay protector. Here’s the result:
Not bad!
Ryan’s bike computer has been dead for a while and I don’t think the batteries were the issue. Buying a Garmin for myself earlier this year freed up two perfectly functional Cateye Micro Wireless computers, one of which now belongs to the Wahoo. The brief and experimental ride to which I referred above was a trip around the block to make sure the computer worked properly.

So, Ryan’s happy and I’m happy. His bike is better than before and I got play mechanic without spending any money or exposing one of my own bikes to my inexpert ministrations.

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